An important message from the NIH and CDC:
Influenza, or flu, can knock you off your feet and leave you miserable for nearly a week. It can cause fever, aches and pains, coughing, and exhaustion.
The best way to avoid this fate is to get a flu vaccine each year as early as possible, before or even during flu season, which usually lasts from October to as late as May. The vaccine is available as either a shot or a nasal spray.
Flu is highly contagious. When infected people cough or sneeze, the flu virus can spread to others up to 6 feet away. As many as 1 in 5 Americans come down with the flu each year, and kids are 2 to 3 times more likely than adults to get sick with the flu. Most cases are mild, but flu can also be serious, leading to hospitalization and even death.
Flu vaccines can reduce illness, doctors’ visits, and missed work and school. Vaccines can also prevent flu-related hospitalizations and deaths. When more people get vaccinated, it’s harder for the flu virus to spread.
Experts recommend that everyone 6 months and older get the annual flu vaccine, with rare exceptions. Talk to your doctor if you have questions about which vaccine options are best for you and your family. Learn more at www.flu.gov
What is Influenza (also called Flu)?
The flu is a contagious respiratory illness ...

News and information from the NIH and CDC
Most everyone looks forward to summer—time to get away, get outside and have some fun. So what could be more unfair than catching a cold when it’s warm? How can cold symptoms arise when it’s not cold and flu season? Is there any way to dodge the summertime sniffles?
Cold symptoms can be caused by more than 200 different viruses. Each can bring the sneezing, scratchy throat and runny nose that can be the first signs of a cold. The colds we catch in winter are usually triggered by the most common viral infections in humans, a group of germs called rhinoviruses. Rhinoviruses and a few other cold-causing viruses seem to survive best in cooler weather. Their numbers surge in September and begin to dwindle in May.
During summer months, the viral landscape begins to shift. “Generally speaking, summer and winter colds are caused by different viruses,” says Dr. Michael Pichichero, a pediatrician and infectious disease researcher at the Rochester General Hospital Research Institute in New York. “When you talk about summer colds, you’re probably talking about a non-polio enterovirus infection.”
Enteroviruses can infect the tissues in your nose and throat, eyes, digestive system and elsewhere. A few enteroviruses can cause polio, but vaccines have mostly eliminated these viruses from Western countries. Far more widespread are more than 60 types of non-polio enteroviruses. They’re the second ...

The most recent FluView report for the 2014-2015 flu season shows that flu season in the United States has begun and about half the country is experiencing high levels of flu activity. Reports of flu illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths are elevated. Activity is expected to continue for several weeks, especially in parts of the country that have not yet seen significant activity.
CDC recommends an annual flu vaccine for everyone 6 months and older. There are documented benefits from flu vaccination, including reductions in illnesses, related doctors' visits and missed work or school. Vaccination also prevents flu-related hospitalizations and deaths. While most of the viruses spreading this season are different from what is in the vaccine, vaccination can still provide protection and might reduce severe outcomes such as hospitalization and death.
If you have not been vaccinated yet this season, get your flu vaccine now.
CDC recommends a three-pronged approach to fighting flu: get vaccinated, take everyday preventive actions to help stop the spread of germs and takeantiviral medications to treat flu illness if your doctor prescribes them.
For more information, please visit the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov.

Early data suggests that the current 2014-2015 flu season could be severe. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urges immediate vaccination for anyone still unvaccinated this season and recommends prompt treatment with antiviral drugs for people at high risk of complications who develop flu.
So far this year, seasonal influenza A H3N2 viruses have been most common. There often are more severe flu illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths during seasons when these viruses predominate. For example, H3N2 viruses were predominant during the 2012-2013, 2007-2008, and 2003-2004 seasons, the three seasons with the highest mortality levels in the past decade. All were characterized as “moderately severe.”
Increasing the risk of a severe flu season is the finding that roughly half of the H3N2 viruses analyzed are drift variants: viruses with antigenic or genetic changes that make them different from that season’s vaccine virus. This means the vaccine’s ability to protect against those viruses may be reduced, although vaccinated people may have a milder illness if they do become infected. During the 2007-2008 flu season, the predominant H3N2 virus was a drift variant yet the vaccine had an overall efficacy of 37 percent and 42 percent against H3N2 viruses.
“It’s too early to say for sure that this will be a severe flu season, but Americans should be prepared,” said CDC director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “We can save lives with a three-pronged effort ...

Did you get your flu shot yet? It's not too late! As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, many people think that the flu season ends in November and its already too late to get vaccinated. Well my friends, the answer is that it's not too late.
According to Dr. Anne Schuchat, Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service and Director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, "Flu season typically peaks in late February and can last as late as May." Dr. Schuchat also emphasized, " We are encouraging people who have not yet been vaccinated this season to get vaccinated now."
Some of the typical flu symptoms for millions of people every season, include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle aches and pains, fatigue and very miserable days spent in bed, usually home from work or school.
More than 200,000 people are hospitalized in the United States every year from flu complications including 20,000 children!
Over a period of 30 years, between 1976 and 2006, estimates of the yearly flu-associated deaths in the United States range from a low of about 3000 to a high of about 50,000 people.
The CDC recommends an annual flu vaccine to everyone 6 months and older. Flu shots are generally safe (most common side effects of the shot are ...

Okay, happy New Year! Blah blah blah! I hope everyone has had enough of the new year’s parties and eating and more eating and snacking and more eating and NO EXERCISE. Have you had enough? Are your clothes a bit tighter? Yea-big surprise! Your pants-a bit more snug? Your dress-not fitting the way it did last year? And forget the bathing suit-that’s not happening! Have you had enough yet? What? Now you can’t remember all of those calories you ate, drank and woofed down? Your clothes can! They have perfect memory and they are not forgiving. That’s right-not all clothes have that comfort elastic Hanes waistband. Not all clothes have that wonderful stretch. So let’s get to the problem.
You have gained weight. Yes, that’s right, admit it, face your problem. Say it-say it with me, “I have gained weight and I am not happy.” Okay, doesn’t that feel better? It’s out in the open. Now we can deal with it. Yes, there is a solution. Yes, you came to the right blog page. I will help you. Don’t adjust your dial, don’t switch to another web page. Take a moment, relax and read on. The answer is just words away!
You are asking yourself-how can I lose this weight by summer? How can I fit in to my bathing suit? I don’t want anyone to see me this way.
Well, there is ...

I just received an email from my daughter's school. I am trying to get used to this age of technology. But it scares me to get a letter from her school. Especially an email which came on my Blackberry. Anyway, it's still summer, and she is home, so I know nothing is wrong, but I was still anxious. As it turns out, it was an information letter regarding the “Swine Flu”. As you all know, the Swine Flu (originally called this because of similar genes found in the virus that are also found in pigs), or as it is called now in the press “Novel H1N1” or just simply “H1N1”is a virus. It is from swine origin, spreading person to person and was first confirmed in the United States back in March and April of this year. Since that time, all fifty U.S. states, including Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have confirmed cases of H1N1. The majority of cases are in the age group 5-24 years old, but people of all ages are at risk. So I went to the CDC site (cdc.gov) and here is what I found out:
What are the major symptoms according to the CDC are:

Symptom

(%)

Fever

93%

Cough

83%

Shortness of breath

54%

Fatigue/Weakness

40%

Chills

37%

Myalgias

36%

Rhinorrhea

36%

Sore Throat

31%

Headache

31%

Vomiting

29%

Wheezing

24%

Diarrhea

24%

How is H1N1 spreading?
According to the CDC: The virus is spreading person to person by coughing, sneezing, touching ...